A Dance with Dragons

I thought I really enjoyed this book. Looking back on my notes there were a lot of fillers. It was much better than A Feast for Crows, but too many pointless chapters to give it 5 stars.

Jon: Trying to get control of the nights watch. some chapters were brilliant, others a waste. Still one of the strongest characters in this book. Lived hearing more about the Wildlings.

Danaerys: if I hear one more thing about Daario I might scream. She didn't care about the city, so I gave up caring too.

Bran: That's it?.... sure his character is boring, but we finally were getting somewhere! Then silence. George could have easily swapped a pointless chapter for this one.

Theon/Reek. on his was to a redemption plotline. Easy my favorite chapters. The inner struggle, hiding from Ramsay. The chapters were cruel, but he had the best character development.

Tyrion: I'm on a boat. I found a dwarf friend. I get on another boat. I'm sold into slavery. get on another boat. finally almost meet Danaerys. she flies off. I try to find a new boat.

Sir Barristan: Important POV after Dany leaves, and he tells what's happening when she's too busy daydreaming about Daario. chapters just too long and boring.

Quentin Martel. hilarious. boy thinks he can whip a dragon into obeying him. moron.

other Martels : trying to screw over the lannisters I'm ok with that.

Melisandre: oooh visions. I'd be fond with more chapters from her. they actually made me like her.

Random Targaryan kid: who? why. stupidest plotline by far.

Asha Greyjoy: she's horny.... ok..... pointless chapter.

Arya: ooh closure. good. looking forward to what happens next with her.

cersei. got what she deserves. hope they behead her. what's with frankenstein??

Jamie and Brienne: I need more!! let's go!!

Davos: captured again. his plot seems done.

Victorian Greyjoy: I think he's someone to watch. using blood magic. hope Dany crisps him .

epilogue: best part. poor kevan, but FINALLY Varys shows back up. the boom missed his scheming.

Compared to the first three this was slow. This like all the books are written well but I thought some if the distributions were a little long winded at times. In true Martin fashion the reader is left with many cliff hangers for some favorite characters and even not so favorite characters which has left me anxious for the next book. I was thinking how I should have took notes on each character so I remember everything clearly when the next book finally is released.

GRRM knows how to do a few things well; build characters that you care about, kill those characters and to drag unrelated characters into the mix to break up the tension. It creates a kind of jerky narrative at times that really feels like it was made for TV.

TYRION IS IN TROUBLE, HOW WILL HE EVER COPE?

Cut to commercial.

Jon Snow takes his glove off and clenches his sword hand.

It keeps you reading, at least.

Definitely a set-up book to prepare for what hopefully will be a fucking epic 6th book, which hopefully will not take another 6 years to be published... Otherwise, I was a little disappointed. And soooo messed up about the Theon/Reek chapters. Those made me nauseous and teary even though I hated Theon forever.

While much more satisfying than Book 4, I am now faced with waiting at least half a decade before any of these new cliffhangers are resolved.

On the whole, I think this one felt a little more complete than the last book, tying together plot lines, destroying red herrings, and carrying out the slow reveals that Martin excels in. This does not excuse him leaving Sansa out for the whole book while giving at least a token chapter to all the other Feast for Crows viewpoints.

After what happened to Cat, I am hesitant to believe Jon Snow is dead. In Martin's world, major characters don't seem to stay dead unless someone they love is there to watch, witness, and mourn. The deaths have to hurt. Also, while I recognize Jon as a vital character and would love to seem him take down Bolton, his point of view is one of the harder ones to slog through. Also difficult to deal with are characters like Victarion, Quentyn, and Griff, characters who seem to be there to move the story along but with whom Martin doesn't really develop that emotional character/reader bond he does with others. I hope the next book has fewer, for lack of a better word "NPC" characters and more time with "stars."Because I'm sure I will forget half the book before the next one comes out, I'm going to make notes on the questions I have at the end/plot lines I'm most anxious to see resolved.-Asha and Theon's reunion. WTF happened in Bolton's camp? Stannis' death is another thing I'm led to doubt.-Who is Melisandre, really. This book built more and more sympathy for her, and I'd love her POV to be more fully explored.-Varys has been plotting with young Aegon the whole time? Must know more!-When the frak is Dany getting to Westeros.-Tyrion's plot line didn't leave me in dire concern for his safety, but I just want more of him. Possibly hanging out with Dothraki.-Likewise on Arya, though I don't see how she'd meet up with Dothraki. Then again, GRRM works in mysterious ways.-Why the frak does Bran disappear halfway in never to return? I want to know more about his spooky powers. -What is Brienne doing with Jaimie? I really don't think she has it in him to send him to slaughter, but we still don't know the word she screamed to save her life at the end of FfC.


Part of me is a bit relieved to be caught up with the series. It's wonderfully convoluted which makes for long hours slogging through feasts and battles and council meetings to get at the meat of the characters I'm so in love with. Reading it feels like a mental cardio exercise, pushing to a goal that is as yet hidden.

Het is allemaal een beetje in één geschoven, de hele reeks van A Song of Ice and Fire, vrees ik: ik had deel één al gelezen, jaren geleden, en toen heb ik de televisieserie gezien, en toen heb ik deel één tot en met vier herlezen, en net toen deel vier uit was, heb ik deel vijf gelezen. Deel vier en vijf waren oorspronkelijk opgevat als één boek, en met ze zo meteen na mekaar te lezen, zitten ze ook zo in mijn hoofd.

Ik heb de indruk dat het allemaal wat sneller had kunnen gaan, met wat minder geëmmer hier en wat meer detail daar, maar ik ga niet klagen. Het ging uiteindelijk vooruit; niet zo goed als in het begin, maar een mens krijgt toch de indruk dat de stage helemaal geset is voor een zekere conclusie.

—

Feastdance, A Feast with Dragons, A Dance for Crows: noem het hoe ge wilt. Wat het is, is hoe deel vier en vijf van A Song of Ice and Fire zouden moeten gelezen worden.

Het verhaal is bekend: GRRM was begonnen aan deel vier, en het bleef maar groeien, en groeien, en groeien, en iedereen werd ongeduldig, en het lukte maar niet om alles af te ronden zoals hij het wou afronden – en dus besloot hij maar om het boek in twee te splitsen.

Niet chronologisch in twee, want het grootste deel van boek vijf loopt parallel met boek vier. Ook niet thematisch, want de thema's lopen over en door de twee boeken heen. Wel op basis van de personages, grotendeels. De afweging was: vertel ik in boek vier ongeveer de helft van het verhaal voor (bijna) alle personages, of (bijna) het hele verhaal voor ongeveer de helft van de personages.

Het is dat tweede geworden: het minste kwaad, dacht Martin. Begrijpelijke, maar vooral spijtige zaak, want de twee boeken zijn vele (véle) keren beter als ze samen gelezen worden.

Wie de boeken nog niet gelezen heeft, rep u naar hier om te leren hoe ze zouden moeten gelezen worden. Wie de boeken wél al gelezen heeft, haast u naar hier om te zien hoe Sean T. Collins (en Stefan, en vele anderen) de twee in elkaar gestoken hebben.

Ik kan niet zeggen hoe content ik ben van mijn ikweetnietmeerhoeveelste herlezing.

As much as absolutely loved the first three books of Martin's A Song of Ice And Fire series, this one along with A Feast For Crows felt like a lot of filler. Originally, by Martin's own admission, he planned to have a gap of years after the third book and then to jump back in, but in tracing out the events that would occur during the gap so that he knew where all the characters would be at the start of his new story cycle, he got excited about the stories and decided to write them rather than have them skipped. The beginning of the series, A Game of Thrones, doesn't begin at the beginning. Much has happened in the land of Westeros, and part of the brilliance of the first three books is how they weave in details of the wars and events that came before without bogging down the story. You get the information you need, you understand that those tales you aren't being told are exciting and important, but you are in this story here which is also exciting. AFFC and ADWD contain elements of that, flashing back to days before AGOT, and those turn out to be the best parts of the books. The rest of it feels like moving chess pieces around a board with the occasional taking of a pawn and little else.

Despite the lackluster experience with these two books, I'll continue reading the series, but I can't help but feel that Martin should have stuck to his original plan, skipped some time and picked up the story again when all the players we in place again.

Net zoals A Feast For Crows vond ik ook deze net iets minder dan de eerste drie.
Natuurlijk wel nog steeds een heel goed boek, hoewel ik er wel ongeveer 4 maand over gedaan heb om hem effectief uit te krijgen.

Pagina's 200-600 of zo waren een beetje moeilijk om te doorworstelen, maar daarna wordt het wel weer wat vlotter leesbaar vind ik.

This was a hell of a slog, and I'm not really sure it was worth it.

I loved this series a lot. I read the first three twice and bought them for a few friends as well. But this one just had me wishing it would end so I could start reading something that I might enjoy. I stopped caring. The only bit that I really enjoyed was in the epilogue, but it was a hard slog to get to that part. I'm not sure I even want to carry on with the story to be quite honest. If I do, it'll be because the Arya thread is interesting, but speed it up for God's sake!

2 stars

I want to say that I really enjoyed this book, but I don't know that it really lived up to all my hopes and expectations. Perhaps it is because I had to wait for this book, but for some reason the characters felt a bit... off. I mentioned in my review of the fourth book that several of the main characters were left out, and their stories weren't continued until the fifth installment. After the bang-boom-wow ending of the third book their absence was annoying, but understandable in the context of needing to seed ideas for upcoming events in the story. So it is, I think, understandable that I was more than a little excited to have these characters re-introduced to the story. And I did enjoy reading about them again. But for some reason they all felt a little different than they did before. A little less sharp, a little less witty. The first three books were so great because the characters all felt so smart - perceptive and scheming, with plots inside plots that were as difficult for the reader to figure out as it was for the characters. Perhaps it is just because we have been with the characters longer, and have a better understanding of their motives, or perhaps it is because previous events have (understandably) changed their demeanor, but for some reason the characters and events that transpired in A Dance with Dragons feel a bit more plain than those in the previous novels. Which doesn't mean I didn't enjoy this romp through Westeros - the enormity of this story and the craftsmanship of the writing can't be ignored, and there were certainly moments that will be considered highlights of the story as a whole (yay dragons!) - but I just wasn't as thrilled with this portion of the story as I wanted to be. I suppose it really just felt too much like set-up and posturing for events yet to come. But I think a lot of these upcoming events will be very interesting. Which means that while this may not have been my favorite installment of the series, I am very much looking forward to reading the forthcoming The Winds of Winter. If, you know, it ever gets finished.